General principles involved in the effect of noise on hearing and vocal communication in birds

Abstract

Birds provide very useful models for understanding the effects of noise on hearing and acoustic communication. They are excellent subjects for laboratory studies of hearing in which signals and noise can be precisely defined and delivered and behavioral responses can be unambiguously interpreted. For this reason, a huge amount is already known about their hearing. Acoustic communication is critically important for most species of birds and some even acquire their communication signals through vocal learning. For this reason, a lot is already known about how birds perceive complex acoustic signals such as vocalizations. Drawing from both field and laboratory studies, we review what is known about the effects of noise on hearing and vocal communication in birds. This includes the effects of intense noise on the ear, the effects of background noise on the detection and discrimination of both simple sounds and complex vocalizations, and the spatial effects of signal detection in noise in the free-field. As a whole, these studies show that birds are resistant to damage and interference from noise and have developed a variety of strategies to effectively communicate.